Rio loves his perches. help me!

[OoLovebirdieoO]

Okay how shall I put this my blackmasked lovebird Rio likes his perches too much, by too much I mean he tries to mate with them. It's becoming obsessive and I'm worried about him. It started a while back so I rearranged his cage and this helped for a short period of time then he started again. Then Rio stopped doing this all together and I thought this behaviour has passed but this week I have noticed its happening again and it's almost obsessive. I usually approach the cage and try to distract him but as soon as i move away it starts again and earlier Rio carried on even though I was doing my best to talk to him and distract him. I don't know why he's doing this it can't be boredom, the toys are changed around every couple of days and I add little bits and pieces for them to play with daily.

I say he but I can't actually be sure. Rio is the only blackmasked lovie I own, someone called us saying they had him living in their garden and thats how we ended up with Rio. I thought maybe he might need a bird of his own species but I'm not even sure that would make a difference he seems to communicate very well with the rest of the peachfaced flock and is best friends with misty who is definatly a girl. Obviously if they did ever nest I wouldnt keep the eggs because the babies would be hybrid.

any ideas what could be causing this and is there anyway to stop this? I doubt its harming Rio but I dont want it to become compulsive or stereotypical behaviour.:confused:

thanks again :)

[linda040899]

Hormones are strange things, even in parrots. This is actually quite common among lovebirds, even those that have mates! You can re-arrange his cage, take away his favorite object and he will simply get comfortable and find another favorite object. :( I'm mentioned this with hormonal hens and it's worth trying with males.....foraging. In the wild, parrots spend a lot of their daylight hours searching for food and it keeps them quite busy. A busy parrot seems to be a happy one.

[OoLovebirdieoO]

thanks again Linda for the reply. I honestly dont know what more I could give him, he might just stop doing it at some point like last time. I'll shred some paper up in a box and see if he'd prefer to forage for some goodies. strange little bird. ;)

[OoLovebirdieoO]

Just wondering for females how do you make your foraging toys? I was just thinking that with paper they might go nesting mad. I can always take it away from them after playtime but I've noticed with all of my females that if I use paper anywhere in the cage, for toys or to line the bottom even if theres a grate at the bottom they are quite good at getting the paper and shredding it into little pieces in a short amount of time.

[linda040899]

My hens are quite good at getting paper from under the grating, as well! I've seen some flap their wings so the breeze will lift up the paper. I even have hens that will put a foot through the grate bars and grab paper. Clever little lovies they are! :whistle: Perhaps create a small basket and mix food in with small foot toys are small blocks of wood. Popsicle sticks and finger traps are great for chewing purposes. Initially, I would hide the food too well until Rio gets used to the idea but as he gets better, you will be able to get more creative!

[Jally]

I have a blackmasked little girl who absolutely loves wood! A favorite way to forage for her is to have lots of wooden items in a wooden tray. Keeps her busy forever!

[OoLovebirdieoO]

thanks for the great ideas! :) I will do this for little Rio and the others. Haha the lovies are so clever and cheeky and yes i've had mine create a breeze to get to the paper! Sometimes I feel kinda bad because they like shredding paper so much but I tend to remove their little pieces of paper because of the nesting. They also LOVE cardboard tubes :)